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North Tongue
Pashmanu is an extinct language. Primarily agglutinative, it relies upon particles to indicate case, location and other such factors. Phonology This section dictates the rules and theory controlling spelling and pronunciation within Pashmanu. Different aspects of the phonology can be explained by need for cohesion between vowels, due to the fact that Pashmanu is highly concentrated with vowel phonemes. Stress The stress of Pashmanu tends to be very fluid, but the basis of its stress is iambic, meaning that the first syllable tends to be unstressed and the second syllable is stressed. Vowels Phonemes Vowel phonemes are limited to five monophthongs. Below is the table demonstrating pronunciation of the monophthongs. Allophonic Diphthongs While the vowels ought to be pronounced separately, and a more educated speaker may do so, it is common for allophonic diphthongs to appear in colloquial speech. When reading words with long chains of vowels, the method of deciphering them is to separate them up into adjacent pairs first before using the correct sounds: * aieoueoauo --> ai | eo | ue | oa | uo Consonants Syllables As the role of the consonant is limited in comparison to its vowel counterpart, syllables are constructed in certain ways. The nucleus of each syllable is the initial vowel in a sequence, and it may be followed by the sequential vowel or a single, sequential consonant. These consonants may be either the bilabial nasal, the alveolar nasal, and the lateral approximant. Preceding the nucleus is the anterior consonant cluster. This can be composed of a single consonant or a consonant cluster followed by an approximant. In a few peculiar cases, the voiceless bilabial stop may also be followed by a non-sibilant fricative. Thus the phonological constraints of Pashmanu can be written as such: * ( C ) ( Ps / Psh / y / w ) V ( V ) ( m / n / l ) * where () indicates a separate grapheme that may not be needed to form a syllable, and [] represents the needed consonant for those chains to occur. (The reason 'Pashmanu' breaks these phonological constraints is because the word was not originally part of the language. Indeed, Paisha Manu is actually a culture reference within the language to the origin of their society: the "purple clay" from which the society was born.) Orthography When written out in the Latin script, most letters keep the sounds that are concurrent with their English counterparts (i.e. 'k' sounds are written with 'k'). In this manner, most sounds are dealt with. However, the remaining noises, such as consonants which often require two graphemes for English, must be given their own written form. Therefore, the Latin script for Pashmanu transcription is as follows: * Aa Bb Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Kk Chch Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Shsh Tt Uu Ww Yy Grammar Nouns Nouns are not inflected in any form. To understand whether or not the noun referred to is definite or indefinite, plural or singular, or any other such form, attention to context is needed. As a rule, all nouns have their first letter capitalised to greater indicate the fact that it is a noun. The only exception to this is a pronoun which remains un-capitalised. * the law:'' fwo --> Fwo'' Certain verb forms may be capitalised to form a noun, such as the gerund or the infinitive. Analogous within English are the two constructions below, first the gerund and then the infinitive. * Margrit spent her bingo winnings. * "And it's a win'' ''for the blue team!" Pronouns Pronouns are a set of words that can replace other nouns; they act as reference points to previously known items, objects or people. Unlike with other languages, such as Japanese or Spanish, the pronouns may not be dropped if the context is known. Pronouns are not inflected also, as the understanding of possession comes from particles. The communal pronoun acts in a similar manner to the first person plural, indicating a collective group, but has a greater sense of size. Common usage of this pronoun is within speeches and talking to indicate a collective opinion, or a supposed collective opinion: * We think the government is wrong. * It is our right to free speech that is under attack. The Fourth Person Within Pashmanu there is also a fourth person. It is the only noun to become inflected, primarily to help understanding of different points of reference; however, its inflection is based upon the quality its origin possesses. The basis of this grammatical person within Pashmanu is highly philosophical and is an intrinsic part of the culture. Its usage is very strict, to the extent that the Pashmanu Language Academy would take misconductors to court for bastardising the language and corrupting the intentions this person sets forth. There are two forms of this person: the terral form and the astral form. The four qualities distinguish between different nouns: the inanimate refers to non-sentient, physical and tangible objects such as wood, clothes, wind; the animate refers to sentient beings of limited capacity such as animals, bacteria and plants; the abstract refers to ideas or objects without physical permanence, such as mathematical equations, emotions and hypothetical situations; and then the being indicates sentient creatures of high capacity, or species capable of diplomacy. Particles One of the most apparent aspects of Pashmanu grammar is the usage of particles to identify the action or role of a word within the sentence, e.g. whether the word is a direct object or a location. However, the role of the particle is not always clear or dependent upon a direct grammatical need. Verbs Due to the particle system, verbs have a highly flexible position within the sentence. Common practice within educated speech, however, tends to place the primary verb at the start of the sentence, usually followed by other verbs before moving onto other constructions. While the subjects and objects of the verb are indicated by the use of noun particles, verbal conjugations account for the grammatical role a verb may play -- indicating voice, mood, tense and so forth. One aspect that is particular to Pashmanu is the lack of conjugation for a person, yet the changing of the verb under ... different circumstances: # Tense # Mood # Voice Tense Mood Subjunctive, judissive Voice Potential, permissive, dutiful, causative, passive Adjectives Adjectives end in 'ai' 'n' or 'a' Vocabulary Colours * colour = * red = * orange = * yellow = * green = * blue = * purple = paisha * pink = * brown = * white = non * black = Characteristics * young = * annoying = Nature General * to be = * being = * man = * woman = * boy = * girl = Rural * water = * plant = * earth = * clay = Manu Emotions Society Law * law = Fwo User:Beestie/sandbox2